


Breath of life

by dumblyyydore



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, Jedi Rey, Kylo Ren - Freeform, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Love, Sith Shenanigans, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-22 21:17:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13175379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumblyyydore/pseuds/dumblyyydore
Summary: Kylo Ren and Rey fall deeply in love in the end. Plus a lot of smut to come. Stay tuned ;)





	1. A Reckoning

_“Rey.”_

Rey bolted upright. It was still dark out and the dying flame from the candle cast a warm glow across her skin. She frowned, unsure as to what had just woken her up.

_“Rey.”_

Her lightsaber ignited as it thudded home in her outstretched palm. In the same movement, Rey spun to face the voice – only to come face to face with the mud brick wall of Master Luke’s hovel. She felt a tug through the Force in the distance.

_“Rey.”_

Scowling, she grumbled to herself in annoyance. Whoever it was repeating her name was starting to get on her nerves. For a moment, she wondered if it was Master Luke but she could not sense his Force signature in the constant tug. Plus, this Force signature was a mess, a dark tsunami of conflicting emotions in tumultuous waves crashing repeatedly, unlike Master Luke’s, which was like the calming breath of waves on the shoreline in the mornings.

 _“Who are you?”_ She sent back through the Force, hands still gripping tightly onto the hilt of her lightsaber. A momentary pause-

_“Kylo Ren.”_

Rey recoiled in shock and horror as memories of the time in the interrogation room came flashing back at her. The helmeted man swathed in night. The blade of blood red. Leia and Han’s child turned Sith. Kylo Ren. What was he doing in her head? How could she feel him through the Force? She could feel the touch of his fingers curling over something oblong, perhaps an armrest, his Force signature nearly drowning her.

 _“What…How?...”_ Rey snarled, gritting her teeth as though that would force him out of her head. _“Get out of here Ren. You’re not wanted.”_

She could almost hear him chuckle as he replied. _“I can’t even if I wanted to… Feel it for yourself Rey. The Force connection. What a strange and unusual manifestation indeed…”_ She felt him stand up and turn around to face her. _“But this may not be for the worst….Tell me: Where is Luke Skywalker?”_

_“I won’t.”_

He smirked. _“I knew you’d say that. However…”_ he paused and she could feel him probing through the connection that joined them together. _“I can sense his presence… through yours.”_ As suddenly as it came, the connection severed, leaving Rey frozen motionless, the blue glow of her lightsaber melding with the fiery red of the sunrise.

\-----------------

“You’re leaving.” Master Luke said simply before Rey even had the chance to open her mouth.

“Y-yes Master. I…need to go.” She couldn’t tell him about the Force bond or why she needed to go; she didn’t have time. Kylo Ren could track her presence and that meant that if she stayed with Luke, the Resistance’s last hope would be in danger. She could not risk it. She would not.

\-----------------

Luke watched as the X wing fighter flew into the horizon, carrying Rey away with it. Something in the Force told him that she would be alright. Just to be safe, Luke had advised her to go to a fairly remote planet in the Outer Rim which was met with some shock and confusion. He smiled slightly to himself at the memory as he wrapped his robes around himself and headed back in. That girl doesn’t know how _loudly_ she projects her thoughts.


	2. Down

Keying in the coordinates that Master Luke had given her, Rey leaned back in her seat and watched the stars go by. She hadn’t brought much with her, just some old clothes from Jakku, her lightsaber and some provisions. She didn’t know how long she could run from Kylo Ren or how safe Master Luke’s suggested planet _on the Outer Rim_ out of all places was. She didn’t know what to do if Kylo Ren found her. In her first ever lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren, she had managed to land a blow deep enough through his helmet that must have at least scarred his face, giving the perfect opportunity to flee but she did not know if she would be that lucky this time around. Sighing, she felt herself dozing off to sleep and gratefully embraced the empty darkness that awaited.  

 

 _BEEP WOoOoOO_ came a high-pitched screech, pulling Rey up from her slumber. Her droid screeched again as something large collided against her X wing.

 

“Shit!” Rey cursed as she noticed the Imperial fighter bumping her X wing. He had caught up with her.  

 

 _“Rey. Where is Luke Skywalker?”_  

 

“ _Not HERE you bastard_ ” she projected back, trying to stall for time as she fumbled with the controls. She heard an almost exasperated sigh before the target acquisition in the cockpit started flashing red.

 

WARNING. TARGETED. WARNING. TARGETED.

 

Cursing, Rey yanked the yoke of the X wing back, causing it to turn sharply to the right. She felt the shock emanate off Kylo just for a split second before they both fired.

 

At each other’s turbo engines.

 

At the same time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short chapter but I promise Chapter 3 will be longer & much more exciting :) This is my first time writing a fanfic btw please go easy on me 


	3. Ambivalence of the soul

Rey woke up with a throbbing headache. She could barely breathe through the thick cloud of smoke from her downed X wing engulfing her. Choking, she stumbled around blindly till she got out of the thick of the smoke. What she saw frightened her. As far as her eyes could see, this planet was nothing but a barren wasteland for miles around. Well, minus for the wreckage of a TIE fighter in the distance. “Shit. Got to get out of here fast,” Rey muttered as she picked up her bag of provisions that had been flung a good five metres away by the crash. As she hoisted it onto her back, she felt a sharp stab of pain in her side. The glass from the window pane of the X wing had dislodged from its fall through the stratosphere and embedded itself into her side. The heat from the stratosphere had cauterized the wound on the way in but the slight exertion had caused the bleeding to start once more. This was going to be a painful journey.

 

\---------------

 

 _Dang it._ What a fool he was, he thought to himself as he Force slung pieces of wreckage off his body. He should have killed her when he had the chance in the interrogation room. No- he should have killed her no matter what, because that was what Sith Lords do. What any good Sith Lord would do.

 

He didn’t want to think about what that meant for him.

 

\---------------

 

The midday suns were beating down on Rey mercilessly. Ten of them to be precise. She felt like a deep fried gorg being refried again and again and again. Her throat was starting to feel like coarse sandpaper and her skin was starting to peel. Yet, she almost managed to crack a smile as she thought of Jakku, her homeland. Back then, she thought it was one of the most inhabitable planets ever, with the constant heat and sand that got everywhere no matter what you did- this _crappy_ planet Luke suggested however was about to take the prize.

 

\----------------

 

He could feel her through the Force, moving away from the horizon. He knew she was injured- her fingers curling around the edges of the wound in an attempt to keep it closed.

 

Easy target.

 

\----------------

 

She felt him getting closer and closer through the Force.

 

\----------------

 

He could see her slight figure, silhouetted against the light of the setting suns. He flicked his hair away from his sunburnt face and ignited his lightsaber.

 

\-----------------

 

Rey turned around to meet him with her blade, causing a metallic sizzle in the air. Shock, quickly replaced by anger emanated from the helmeted man wielding the crimson blade. Rey smiled grimly.

 

_If this is a battle you want Kylo, I’ll bring the hell that you’re looking for._

\-----------------

 

They battled under the stars, their lightsabers sparking against each other, red against blue. Rey was starting to tire and the wound in her side was beginning to bleed more profusely than before. The crimson blade was swathing in and out of her own blade almost gracefully. It reminded Rey of the war dances of old that she had seen in some archives.

 

Almost gracefully.

Almost beautifully.

Almost deadly.

 

\------------------

 

Kylo was impressed. She fought well for one barely trained and had guts and courage stronger than the Death Star that Luke Skywalker blew up. He didn’t know how she was still fighting with that gaping wound in her side. He could feel her pain and frustration seeping off her through the Force bond in rivulets, yet she fought on.

 

It would be such a tragedy to kill her.

 

He stepped in for the final blow. Using the Force, he snatched her lightsaber from her grasp before kicking her in the stomach, sending her sprawling into the cold sand dunes. He looked down at her still body. This was his time. To prove to Snoke that he was Sith. To prove to himself that _he_ was Sith.

 

He lifted his lightsaber.

 

Kylo could feel droplets of cold sweat winding its way down his cheeks under his helmet. He knew he _had_ to but he didn’t know why he _couldn’t._ This girl was the reason why he was booted out of the First Order to begin with. Snoke had foreseen that she would be his greatest weakness and he had proved it that very day he let her escape from the interrogation room. It was something he saw in her eyes that day that he just could not put his finger to.

 

He hated it. He hated having weaknesses, especially ones which he did not understand and _should not have been_ to begin with.

 

Snoke was right. He had to remove this weakness if he wanted to be Sith.

 

“Why don’t you just kill me now and be done with it? _What are you waiting for?”_ she hissed, making a face as she struggled to sit upright. Her top was beginning to saturate with blood and he could almost hear the drip of it into the sand.

 

“What are you waiting for _Ben_?”  

 

_He froze. What did she just call him?_

In that moment of distraction, he felt her lightsaber wiggle out of his grasp into her outstretched palm as she leapt toward him. The last thing he saw were her dark brown eyes laced with anger before he felt no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spent the last couple of hours throwing up before feeling a bit better and sitting down to write this, hopefully this is good :) Lots more great Reylo coming up very soon, so stay tuned :)


	4. Conflict

In customary Rey fashion, she had aimed for his leg. She did not want to kill him; no - she was not a monster like him, but she did value her life. Disabling him would still give her a decent opportunity to escape. Thumbing the kill switch on the lightsaber, she dropped to her knees on top of him, the exertion from the fight threatening to suck her into the abyss. Their fight had gone on well into the night and with the heat from the battle over, she was beginning to freeze. The cold air was almost choking like a vice around her. She was so cold. So, so cold. Oh how she wished for those ten suns to rise again.

 

Okay, maybe not all ten, she thought, recalling her sun-scorched, blistering face.

 

This bloody planet just could not make up its mind and neither could she.

 

\------------------

 

It was a while before she realized that she could feel a slight warmth on her cheek. Frowning, she looked down, only to find herself lying face first on Kylo Ren’s breathing respirator. _Ewww… that’s nasty_ , she thought to herself sluggishly. She hated that mask with a burning passion. It was an ugly, carbon black with silver streaks outlining where his eyes were and the slight breathing which emitted through was so mechanical, so inhuman.

 

Almost by reflex, she placed her trembling fingers gingerly under the side of the helmet, tracing around until she found what she was looking for. She didn’t know what was the point of unmasking her enemy, but something compelled her to. Maybe it was her hatred for that disgusting mask. Or maybe she needed to see the true face of the person who had tried to kill her.

 

The hidden catches hissed open. It was now or never. She breathed in deeply before flinging the helmet off.

 

So this was what Kylo Ren looked like.

 

He looked nothing like what she had imagined. He had messy ebony hair, cut in long bangs which only served to lengthen his already disproportionately long face. Along the side of his face was a silvery line, tracing its way from his right brow past his left cheekbone. A scar of her doing. She had expected to see a fiercer, crazed face, one that she often associated with the Sith. Instead, Kylo Ren looked…. _normal_. Gentle, even. Or perhaps this was just how an unconscious Sith looked like.

 

Or maybe…. Maybe this was Ben. What Ben looked like.  

 

Rey sat back and stared at the man lying on the ground in front of her. She shook her head, as though trying to shake that stupid thought out of her head. Kylo Ren had killed Ben the moment he had turned to the dark side. He couldn’t come back to the light. She had to leave _now._

 

But if Ben had really fallen to the dark side, then why did he spare her life in the interrogation room? Why was he unable to finish her off earlier?

 

She just couldn’t leave him here in this barren wasteland, out in the freezing night and the scorching day with a massive leg wound. She looked down at his sand streaked face. “I’m so going to regret doing this later…” Rey muttered to herself, sighing as she Force grabbed her pack off the ground, rummaging about until she found what she was looking for. She stripped pieces of cloth from her clothes and soaked it in the small canister of bacta. Stupid stupid _stupid_ conscience. Poe had often told her jokingly that her kindness would be the death of her eventually and now with her about to patch up a Sith Lord who would probably kill her, she couldn’t agree more.

 

She made herself promise that after she patched him up, she would run.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is Rey doing????? 


	5. Chapter 5

It was too warm. Way too warm. He hated it. It reminded him of why he turned to the Dark Side to begin with. _General Leia_ he spat in his mind, had left him behind in the crushing flames engulfing the forests of Endor when the newly formed First Order had attacked. She hadn’t even bothered to save _him_ , her own flesh and blood. He was just a _child_ back then. He would have been dead if Snoke hadn’t saved him.

 

Or had he really?

 

He remembered his apprenticeship days, when all he did was to be tortured, be forced to feel pain and give pain. It was the way of the Sith, Snoke had said. At first, killing and torturing people felt good…. justifiable, even. He felt the rage towards his mother’s betrayal course through his veins, hatred clouding his vision. It was enough to smother any conscience which arose from each killing. Yet ever since he had met her, he felt it was getting more difficult to tamp down his conscience. He had seen her fight before, avoiding the innocent and slaying only those who posed an immediate threat to her life. The grace and fluidity in her movements had impressed him from the very beginning compared to his callous and almost _clumsy_ and _vulgar_ fighting style. He had seen her jump headfirst into battle to save her friends. Especially that one idiotic X wing pilot who didn’t seem to know when to bail out.

 

_Rey._

 

_Where was she?_

He opened his eyes.

 

For a moment, he was confused. Was he still alive? He could see the ten dratted suns in the near midday position, their light almost blinding. Yeah, he definitely was. Instinctively, he shifted his head to the left to avoid the blinding rays, only to come face to face with a brown mass of hair. _Who the hell was that?_ Recoiling in shock, he jolted up, his hand coming in contact with a tiny tumbler lying near his leg. He picked it up and smelled it gingerly.

 

_Bacta?_

 

Glancing carefully at the girl lying beside him, he realized that it was Rey. But the glass was still embedded in her side, dry and fresh blood caking the edges and the unmistakable smell of infection setting in. It was getting worse _._ _What in the galaxy did she use it on?_ he wondered. Bacta would’ve healed that wound with no problem at all. Closing his eyes, he used the Force and searched around until he found what he was looking for. A new mass of cells.

 

He went toward the source through the Force and opened his eyes. His leg had a perfect cylinder of new cells running straight through it, in the shape of a lightsaber wound.

 

He stared dumbfounded at the scar, his mind reeling. Why did she heal him when he had _just_ tried to kill her? It didn’t make any sense- she had a life-threatening wound. She had scored what was definitely a disabling strike to his leg which would have most certainly put him out of action for a while even with the help of the Force. She could’ve run away. She should’ve left him to die in this barren wasteland.

 

But she didn’t. Even though he gave her every conceivable reason in the galaxy to leave him to die, she didn’t. She had endangered her own life to save his.

 

He crawled over to her side. He was afraid he was too weak to heal her. To save her. Anger and fear boiled through his veins, bubbling molten lava on stone.

 

 _No,_ he thought to himself, he will _not_ allow failure. _He will save her._

 

He had to.

 

Placing his hands on the wound, he closed his eyes once more and gave himself up to the Force.  

 

_Peace is a lie, there is only passion._

_Through passion, I gain strength._

_Through strength, I gain power._

_Through power, I gain victory._

_Through victory, my chains are broken._

_The Force_

_shall_

_free_

_me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren is ShooktTM

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter done!! Prepping the backstory is always the most difficult part :( Thank you all for reading & do stay tuned for some Reylo further down the road hehe


End file.
